Pretty Poison
by FlowerofAdversity
Summary: An infant girl, left for dead in the desert is found by a Hasassin and raised to become one of the most feared Hasassins herself. She is the only female Hassassin known to man, and is as dangerous as she is beautiful.


Pretty Poison

Synopsis: Taking place after Prince of Persia. A baby is abandoned in the desert and left for dead until a Hassassin finds her and brings her back into the Hasassin's lair to raise her. She becomes feared throughout the land as Poison but her real name is Diamond.

"The Gods have a plan for you, a destiny."-Princess Tamina

"We create our own destiny, Princess."-Dastan to Tamina

Chapter 1-Most Unlikely Candidate

Until now the Den of Hassassins had never seen a female amongst their midst. We had always known the company of other men, but women were always thought to have been too frail, too inadequate to join our ranks. That was the Hassassin Way until I was brought in by Umal, 'The Spear'. The Spear found me while traveling with a small caravan into the city to return with spices for our ritualistic trances and scrying. Our ancient ways mixed with black magic had been passed down from one to another, and everything we learned from our leader, Zolm, who is now resting with his fathers, Allah rest his soul. Nevertheless, I am getting ahead of myself.

When I was born, I was never expecting that I was never meant to be born. I had come from the union of a harem girl and a philandering sheik. Since my mother didn't want the sheik's reputation to be ruined, she planned to have one of her servants spirit me out into the harsh desert during the most dangerous part of the year; The Time of Sandstorms and sand dervishes. Although I had never known my mother, I loathed her with every fiber of my being. Secretly, I hoped that I would have the pleasure of destroying her with my own hands, but even if I never had that delightful chance, it didn't much matter to me whether she lived or died or even where she was.

From the moment I had been left for dead in the desert, I was determined to beat the odds even if fate decided it had other plans for me. When I was found by my surrogate brother, Umal, I was taken into custody by our new leader, Farik, who became my father. At first, he was disgusted at the fact I was a girl and wanted nothing to do with me. Umal nearly paid with his life for having brought me into the Den to begin with. But, something in my eyes convinced my father that I was worthy of being held on to. He could see that I was formidable and I wouldn't let a thing like heat exhaustion and dehydration take my life from me.

Chapter 2-Training Under 'Dagger'

Farik thought it proper from my youth to pit me against his finest Hassassin, 'Dagger'. Dagger was the best fighter amongst all of the rest of them and had never lost a fight. He wasn't afraid to fight dirty and sparred as if he was in a trance. He would move fluidly without any difficulty or even breaking a sweat. He even put me in the ring with deadly vipers and asps to see if I could survive against them, and I proved myself to father again and again. Though my real name was Diamond, since Umal believed he had found a precious treasure of insurmountable worth and beauty, my dad gave me the designation of Poison. Not even venom could kill me. I had been bitten so many times I had become immune to poison.

Thanks to being in the strict discipline of Dagger's training, I have learned to strike much like a cobra does and coil myself back for another attack. I have been a quick study from youth, never backing down from any challenge put in front of me.

That is what has made me the terror I am to this day.

Chapter 3-Legend of the Jinn of Alamut

I have never been approached by one of my brethren asking my hand in marriage or wanting to get to know me in the Biblical sense. The truth of the matter is our kind is celibate, as mad as it seems. Our new recruits are brainwashed urchins from the street, mostly boys. But there is really no mention of love in our culture.

We have respect, fear, power and terror in our arsenal. There is no room for endearment or any emotion that could cripple us. This is why such things are forbidden in our clan.

Since the time I had been taught of our great leader, Zolm, I had learned to abhor the fabled 'lion of Persia', Dastan for taking our leader from us. I had vowed to the clan if I could ever retrieve the Dagger and return Zolm to us I would, but in all honesty, I was more interested in gaining leadership of the clan by maintaining an even more priceless treasure. The three sisters that the now reigning King Dastan and his spellbinding Queen Titania had born were to be guardians of the Sands of Time. Of course, I had heard that originally the temple that held these Sands were long since destroyed, but I knew better. I knew that within Alamut, there was a map that held the location of the Sands, as well an Elixir of Eternity as well as a jinn. I had believed the jinn to be only a fairy tale, since no one in the land had heard any stories of it before, but if indeed the yarns of King Dastan had been true, I knew it was my destiny to retrieve the jinn and obtain unheard of wealth and ultimate power.

In my trances, I could see myself rising to the Head of the clan, becoming even more feared, renowned and legendary than I had before. Such prospects caused me to chuckle slyly within myself. No one in my clan had ever known such unheard of ability. The skies were the limit if I could possess the jinn, but I knew there was always a price for bargaining with jinn. I was not slow witted and I used my intellect toward my advantage. Knowing what I gathered from my trance, I sent my brother Umal to do some scouting incognito in Alamut and waited for his word as to if the treasuries did seal a jinn inside, and if so, that creature was to be mine for the taking.

Chapter 4-Great Power, Great Responsibility

Umal returned with positive report on the rumors being true. Setting him as Captain over the Hassassins as I departed to Alamut to see for myself of the grand treasure they kept captive in their walls. It was true that the Queen was terribly wealthy, but she wasn't the one guarding the precious Time Dagger.

As predicted, the treasure room was kept locked airtight by a couple of muscular guards with large scimitars at their hips. Armed with my lovely cobra Nidia and poison-tipped daggers I slipped in, unnoticed. I had potions to cause the guards to fall into a heavy slumber, so sadly, there would be no killing or shedding of blood today. And I so wanted to see the glorious shade of crimson on the ivory floors in the sacred temple.

In the midst of the treasury lay the golden lamp in all its mystical glory. Foolishly thinking my quest had been too easily, I began tiptoeing toward it. Spikes shot out of the floor, from the side walls and ceiling. Each iron spike nearly missed my black robes, and one cut my side as it passed through. I lunged to grab the lamp and began to make a speedy getaway. I wanted to laugh for joy knowing that soon everything that I wanted would be mine when I rubbed the lamp and released the jinn from his prison.

I rubbed the lamp vigorously and a plume of reddish-saffron smoke emerged from the lamp. It began to shake, shiver and quiver until finally, the jinn emerged, yawning and stretching in a grandiose manner.

"It is about time someone released me. And who might you be, Master ?", the crafty jinn questioned with a curious raised brow.

"I am Poison, feared Hassassin.", I responded. The jinn already knew what was in my heart; control and ultimate power. He mentioned to me that if I brought our fearless leader Zolm back I would have none of that but if I killed Farik that position could be mine for the taking. I realized then that it was foolhardy to have taken the jinn to begin with because he played with my deepest, darkest fantasies and even _I_ wasn't cutthroat or despicable enough to kill my own father, the one who raised me from the brink of death and gave me a second chance. Knowing what I must do, I wished the jinn back to Alamut and put out of my mind ever having wisdom of his existence.

Chapter 5-Vengeance

Not wanting to give up on my original plan to resurrect our leader, I made a second infiltration into Alamut's sacred tower to filch the map to the Sands of Time location, still having rumored to have been destroyed after Nizam had accessed the ultimate source. I had heard he plunged to his untimely death, but I cared little for his existence.

I wasn't certain what I was going to be up against obtaining the Alamutian Map but I wasn't expecting that I would be up against three Persian sisters of the crown.

I was only one Hassassin and not prepared to face the triplets, Alima, Basma and Samira myself. Each girl was a mirror image of the other, so it was difficult to tell them apart. If I was to obtain that map I was going to have to send a scout to study the triplets in their waking and sleeping hours. All the while, I was plotting on ways to obtain the Time Dagger from them. I had to gage myself and train. The stories of these sisters did not fall upon deaf ears considering their fighting ability, nor did the tales of King Dastan's charm or seductive eyes.

To be continued in "Sisters of the Sands of Time"…


End file.
